Anyone engaged in content marketing today needs to cross their T's and dot their I's if they want to be successful. This means much more than just proofing their content for spelling and grammar. It means making sure that all the odds and ends need to be taken care of on a regular basis. You can think of the odds and ends of content marketing as the principles you follow to make sure you're providing not only the best content but content that is found, followed and forwarded to others looking for the same. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore a 16 point checklist that needs to be addressed and managed so that your content is at its best and has the greatest reach for the time that you invest. So read on, learn and use the Top 16 Tips that every content marketer needs to complete in order to achieve the full potential of their content marketing.

Cybercrime
has jumped off the big screen of Hollywood and onto the small screen of
business computer users from coast to coast. Unlike the Hollywood
blockbusters, in most cases the hero doesn’t arrive in the nick of time to save
the day. Given the international nature of cybercrime, even the FBI is
all but helpless to put a stop to this growing scourge, no matter how big the
headlines produced by data breaches get.

In
recent years, high-profile cyberattacks on companies such as Target, Home
Depot, Sony and Sears have alerted the public to the growing threat of
cybercrime. Criminals are endlessly creative when it comes to monetizing
breaches. They exploit easily guessed or re-used passwords, lost or stolen
laptops and human error. More and more, they trick people into giving them
access to their machines, followed by a demand for money. Hackers sometimes
breach a computer and send fraudulent emails directing others—in the name of
the breached victim—to pay them a ransom. More often, they sell the purloined
financial information to the highest bidder. Who loses? Not the banks but
rather companies with minimal internal controls and weak security protocols.
Many business owners are still operating under a false sense of cyber security.

Businesses
have to ask themselves “what cyber exposures exist for me?” In our
technologically dependent world, cyber risks arise from the most common
business operations like processing credit card transactions and collecting
basic customer information. Every retail and e-tail operation in the U.S. needs
to process payments electronically. The vast majority of firms maintain client
records on their computers that contain some form of private information.
Private information such as a customer’s first initial and last name along with
social security number, driver’s license number, password, account number,
credit card numbers or other financial information is routinely stored on
computers, servers and sometimes the cloud. When you come to realize the
exploitation of private information makes up 45% of all cyber security claims,
it is no longer a question of “If” but “When” a business will be hacked.

What
many business owners believe is that they are too small of a fish to entice
cybercriminals to hack their systems. Or they take the attitude that, “If
Sony can’t stop cyber criminals, what am I supposed to do about it?” What
indeed? While major retailers and multinational corporations get all the
press, make no mistake about it, small businesses are targeted every day by
hackers. And why not, when you consider that these are soft targets that
are relatively easy to breach. Most small businesses do not report these
attacks as to do so would be extremely bad publicity, so they are never made
public. This can lull other businesses into thinking it can't happen
to them. It does.

Sticking
your head in the sand is not going to make this problem go away. If you
run a business that collects customer information of any kind, you should be
aware that when a breach occurs, you are going to be held liable. Federal and state laws require companies who have had customer records stolen to shoulder
the burden of notifying, investigating, recovering and compensating those
affected by the theft.

When a breach occurs, expenses add up fast, including breach-event expenses like notification
required by law enforcement and credit reporting agencies. Should
identity theft result, you will need to provide identity restoration services
to victims and hire a privacy attorney to guide you through the complex legal
landscape of laws and lawsuits. You will need to hire a data forensics team to
identify where the breach occurred so that it can be remedied. You might need to cope with network
extortion or reimburse clients for payments made under duress. You may even face network
business interruptions that lead to a loss of income and extra expense. You
might need to restore, recreate or recollect data that has been corrupted,
altered or destroyed.

Following
a breach, you will also face regulatory challenges. Although there are only a
few federal laws on the books for data privacy— Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and Children’s
Online Privacy Protection Act (COPAA) - you will be dealing with 47 state laws
as well as with their attorney generals and the Federal Trade Commission. Since
most firms have workers’ compensation data and employees enrolled with health
insurers, you are also likely to deal with federal and state healthcare laws
such as HIPPA, Cash Management Improvement Act (CMIA) and their regulators: the
U.S. Office of Civil Rights and Health and Human Services

You also need to bear
in mind that small to mid-sized businesses do not have the resources for a full
data breach response. As a result, they generally need an insurance company to
assign vendors, privacy attorneys, data forensics experts, credit monitoring
and PR firms and to manage the claims process. Below are several steps
you need to take to make sure that you minimize the disruption to your business
resulting from loss of data.

Make sure that
every sensitive piece of private information is encrypted. Use a
backup data system to ensure that if your system is compromised that you
do not lose vital data. The backup strategy should guard against data loss
and theft so should include cloud based backup as well as redundant
physical backup on site. Dropbox is not a backup , nor is a RAID
file system. Test the backups to make sure the right data is being backed
up.

Train employees to
recognize social engineering tactics: spear phishing emails (email fraud),
fake anti-virus software, malware, ransomware and ensure identity
verification over the phone when dealing with finances.
Phone calls from Microsoft and banks must always be
regarded as hostile and terminated. Always call the bank back and
speak to a known person before giving ANY information.

One of the most effective ways to determine if an
organization has adequate controls is to complete an application for cyber
insurance coverage. Using the application as a guide, your HUB
International risk broker can help determine if you have adequate internal
controls and protection of individual information.

Effectively
prioritizing cyber risks can become a challenge in establishing mitigation
programs. Understanding the fast paced cyber environment can be crucial in
avoiding potential problems. The HUB International team provides information
and delivers education programs to clients that include:

Ransomware, in which data is encrypted by an encryption virus, is very real and a
huge threat. Glenn Gray from Compufix, a Jacksonville based IT Company,
has seen 6 instances of ransomware in Jacksonville since January. A
ransom is demanded to decrypt the data, which varies from a mere $500 to many
tens of thousands of dollars. In most cases the data is lost unless the
ransom is paid, except in cases where decent backups have been made. The
worst case he encountered was a doctor's practice where HIPPA
compliance rules had been breached during the attack. The resulting collateral damage could have included a very large
penalty, as well as patient lawsuits that would have put the practice out of business.
In that case a $20,000 ransom was paid and the police were not involved
or informed. There is always the risk that even paying the ransom will not end the treat. Even if the data is decrypted, the whole network must be
regarded as suspect and completely replaced down to the router and the hard
drives, and reinstalled from secure backups. The additional cost of that
can be extremely high.

If you own or manage a small business that routinely handles and stores personal or financial data, you need to be proactive in understanding and defending your digital resources before it's too late. Like it or not, the cybercrime clock is ticking.

The
foregoing content is informational in nature.
It is based on information that is generally available, and neither the
author nor Hub International makes any representation or warranty as to its
accuracy. Any recommendation, analysis
or advice provided therein is not intended to be taken as advice regarding any
particular situation and should not be relied upon as such. Any decision regarding the amount, type or
terms of coverage shall be the ultimate responsibility of the reader.

Get your FREE copy.

This article discussed how Cybrcrime has become an everyday occurrence in America today. It provides many examples of these crimes and ideas on how to protect your business from these cybercrimes and hackers.
It also discusses cyber liability insurance, a new way to help mitigate circumstances if your hacked.

If you feel your business could use some help with its marketing, contact us at 904-410-2091. We will provide a free marketing analysis to help you get better results. If you found this article useful, please share
it with friends, family and co-workers. You can find other articles on our blog
by typing in “marketing” or your desired search term in the search box at the
top of this blog. Also, don’t forget
to plus us, on Google+.

If
you think George Orwell’s novel “1984” was farfetched, think again. Everything from Doublespeak to the Thought
Police is alive and well in our every more wired world. Big Brother is being employed by everybody
from the government to big business and cybercriminals worldwide. Many intersections, some homes and every
shopping mall in the world currently sport video cameras. More than 1 million camera-toting drones
currently fly the friendly skies. What’s
even more alarming is that our homes and businesses are rapidly becoming listening
posts bristling with bugging devices galore that we have invited to share our
space. In today’s blog, we will take a
look at where this technology is headed, as well how it has undermined the
concept of “The land of the free.”

We speak to lots of Entrepreneurs and startup organizations and invariably
many have the same misconception about what successful companies do when starting
a new venture. Many of these companies come to us with ideas that have a good starting
point, but are not fully fledged. Often these entrepreneurs haven't taken the time
to work through their ideas. More importantly, they have not bounced their ideas
off a seasoned professional who could give them advice that is not based on selling
them a final product or service. Most newbies try and get their advice via "free
consultation" from vendors who are there to sell them something (like marketing).
In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will discuss these 7 common
myths that many entrepreneurs hold when starting a new venture. We will debunk these
myths and give entrepreneurs the knowledge they need to stay on the right path
so that they will avoid making these common marketing mistakes.

Now before I get into the seven myths and common mistakes they lead
to, I want to tell you the easiest way to avoid making lots of marketing mistakes.
The best way to avoid making mistakes is to find a good marketing consultant. Not
all marketing consultants cost an arm and a leg either. For example, the SBDC (Small
Business Development Council) and the local Chambers of Commerce (with marketing
Matters) have programs to help entrepreneurs learn the marketing ropes. Another
way is to pay for a request of bid specification to be created. Having a marketing
company create an RFP (request for proposal) can be a low cost way to create a great
marketing plan. If you do this, keep in mind the idea that you will not be using
that company as part of the marketing process. In other words, pay a business development
company a consulting fee without trying to buy marketing from them. It’s a great
way to start. Later on in this article I
will provide the elements that their plan has to include so you will have a leg
up on what the RFP has to include. Now let’s look at these 7 common myths.

7 Common Myths

Myth #1: If you have a great
product or superior service, it will sell online. It is true that almost
any product or service can be sold online. However, some products lend themselves
to online sales better than others. For example: Unique items that you have an exclusive
on, items that can easily and cheaply be shipped, small items that will fit in a
USPS package etc. But the real question is not whether a product or service can
be sold online. The real issue is whether
you can sell them in a high enough volume to make a profit. The emphasis here is
on making a profit. There are hard costs associated with selling anything online.
You have website development costs, marketing costs, shipping and logistic costs,
and labor costs. You may have warranty issues, payment processing fees and other
hard costs. All of these have to be factored in as part of your marketing plan.

The major stumbling block for many business owners is marketing their products.
For example: the company website or landing page needs to be easy to use, it needs
to include all the contact information and other relevant information needed to
make a decision., Plus the company's web presence must portray trustworthiness in
order for visitors to move to the next step (i.e. make a purchase, phone call, or
fill out a form). On top of that, the product or service has to rise to the top
among the billions of pages on the internet. This is a common conundrum, since if
you can’t get found online, how will you sell your products or services. The maximum
number of listings on page 1 of most search engines is about 12 items. Pay-per-click
advertising items per page average from 7 to 12 items on the first page. Most of
the people who are searching the web don’t scroll down past the fold at the top
of the page and a large majority never look past page one. The reality is that the
world is filled with great products and services that never made it because of poor
marketing. They just never got found.

Myth #2: If you build a
great looking website, customers will come. Don’t get me wrong, having a good looking
website is important. It needs to look professional. The question is whether the
form or function is more important. Many entrepreneurs believe that a cool looking
website with lots of bells and whistles is what gets people’s attention. While it
may be true that the bells and whistles will get their attention, for the most part,
it will not keep their attention. In fact, after a short while, the bells and whistles
become a distraction and even an annoyance. Many companies spend way too much money
on building in the cool factor and ignore the necessities all websites need. These
necessities include:

Web pages also need to have focus subject matter if you want
them to rank well organically. A focused page has a single subject matter. This
makes it much easier for a web crawler to read, understand and categorizes the page
and its contents. This is why we like landing pages (often referred to as microsites,
splash pages or marketing pages). These pages are usually highly focused and generally
will rank higher than pages with mixed content. Don’t spend a lot of money to build
flashy pages. Stick to the fundamentals and make sure your pages are focused.

Myth #3: I have an offer
and a contact form. That should be enough
to get the job done.
Having a special offer and a contact form is very important. However, that is not
enough to make people take the next step. Earlier I also said you have to have a
clear call to action. If you don’t communicate your needs, intent and instructions
to the visitor, they will not move forward. If they feel confused, they will get
frustrated. If they feel something is missing or out of order, they will lose trust.
Speaking of trust, a good testimonial video above the fold can add credibility to
any web page. When it comes to producing testimonial videos, prospects like to see
real people, not actors. Keep your videos short, no more than 90 seconds at best.
You can also use written testimonials as long as they are original documents, complete
with verifiable dates and full names.

Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The offer! Your
offer is only as good as the prospects think it is! Your offer has to take the risk
out of the transaction. It also has to seem like a no-lose proposition. If your
offer doesn’t have these qualities, it’s not a compelling offer. Remember Domino’s
Pizza compelling offer? Hot pizza to your door in 30 minutes or less or its free!
In most instances, if prospects aren’t calling, clicking or filling out the form,
it’s because your offer isn’t a compelling one.

Myth #4: If I write a high
quality blog, people will read it and my audience will grow quickly. The truth is there are
millions of blogs out there with very few readers. Thousands are created every day
because all the pundits are saying “content is king” and “you should be blogging”.
Well, here is the harsh reality. A great blog is just a billboard in the desert
if it doesn’t have good distribution. If no one knows it exists, no one will read
it. And if no one reads it, you can’t use it as an effective marketing tool. So
how do you get readers? That’s the million-dollar question! The best way to build
readership if you are on a budget is to push your blog out to your social nets.
If you only connect with a few people via your social nets, you’re not much better
off than if you had no followers at all.

Here is where the big lie about blogging and content marketing
gets buried. You have to have an audience to be a successful content marketer. This
means you have to spend time, energy and money building an audience. Whether that’s
through grass roots efforts, email marketing, buying lists, doing pay-per-click
or hitching your caboose to someone else’s train, you have to have a sizable audience
to succeed. What do I mean by hitching your caboose to someone else’s train? At
Working the Web to Win we spend a lot of time, energy and money building an audience.
We currently have approximately 70k Twitter followers and another 15k in LinkedIn,
Facebook, Google+ followers and about 100k connections through other social groups.
A client that signs on with us can tie their blog to our huge following and we can
push them out to more than 100k+ followers with the push of a button. Great content
is very important for the long haul in any content marketing program. But make no
mistake, the real issue is building an audience and then being able to distribute
your message to them.

Myth #5: I am on Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn. That's enough to get more sales and build my credibility. Being on these social networks
is important. In fact, we believe that being in the top eight networks is important
for most businesses. These networks include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+,
Instagram, Pinterest, Blogger and YouTube. However, there is a big difference between
being on a network and managing them day in and day out. Managing even four of these networks can be a
full time job for many. Being on a network and actively engaging your followers
are two different things. Social networks need to be fed on a daily basis. Social
networks can produce high quality prospects and customer engagement when utilized
properly. They can also add significantly to your ranking score as well. But they
will produce nothing if you rarely use them or worse if you only use them to post
advertising on your time line. Remember, no one ever joined a social network to
be sold to! They joined to connect with others, make friends, find news, and be
entertained among other things. Being sold was not one of their goals. Post useful,
engaging, thoughtful, entertaining, timely, high quality content to your social
nets. Be professional and avoid crass behavior. Posting customer testimonials is
a great way to build credibility. If you want to sell on the social networks use
their pay-per-click platforms.

Myth #6: I built my website
only 3 years ago, so there’s no need to update it. In the world of the Internet, 3 months can seem
like an eternity much less three years! One of the most important rules to remember
is that a website needs to have fresh, high quality, timely and relevant content
for it to succeed. In general, a website that receives fresh content generates 4
to 10 times more traffic than static websites. Five years ago we told our clients
that it was important to make sure you had a mobile-friendly website because 28
percent of all web traffic was coming from mobile devices. That meant that more
than a quarter of all web traffic was mobile. Today mobile traffic accounts for
more than 60 percent of all traffic. On top of that, mobile users today are pickier,
choosing websites that are smartphone friendly. If they have trouble reading your
web pages on their smartphones, they will leave it for a more mobile-friendly site.
To make matters even worse, in 2015 Google further implemented their mobile friendly
algorithm update (dubbed Mobilgeddon) that penalizes websites that are not mobile
friendly. Google has even implied that in the future, they will not list a website
that is not mobile friendly to anyone doing a search on a mobile device.

Having a blog on your site (or using your blog as your website)
is a great way to keep your content fresh and give visitors a reason to come back.
Creating seasonal offers, adding seasonal color schemes, a photo gallery and video
blogs are all ways of keeping things interesting. This is true for your visitors
as well as keeping Google interested in you. Websites are like Fruits and Vegetables;
they are at their best when they are fresh.

Myth #7: My website is all
I need for Internet Marketing. Back in 2000, all you needed was a website and
a search engine. Today content marketing is king and the content I am referring
to does not reside on your website. Your website at best accounts for 25 percent
of the overall ranking score on most search engines. High quality, timely, relevant
and useful social posts, reader comments and reviews, social shares, blog posts,
YouTube videos, rating sites, visitor traffic, and backlinks all have an effect
on website ranking. On top of that, you still need effective webpages along with
a continual flow of traffic to grow your online business.

It is often a case of putting the cart before the horse. You
need traffic to grow your business, but you also need other marketing elements to
get people to look at your website. Earlier I stated that I would give you a list
of items needed in your marketing plan. Make sure your plan addresses the following
elements; You can use email marketing, social media marketing, pay-per-click in
social and in search to drive traffic. Blog marketing combined with newsletter touch
marketing can also be a great way to ramp up traffic. There is video feed marketing,
banner advertising and even off-site marketing where you place your URL or a QR
code on printed material and TV or radio ads to generate more visitors. Yes, you
need a website, but a website is only part of the overall scheme of things. You
also need to make sure you use marketing to drive traffic to your website in order
to give your online business any hope of succeeding. Each of the 7 sections above
provided ideas and necessities that all marketing programs need to include.
Make sure you take into account these 7 myths, but more importantly, make sure
you marketing program includes everything it needs to succeed.

That’s my opinion, I look forward to reading yours.

Get your FREE copy.

In this article I have
discussed 7 internet marketing myths that entrepreneurs often believe, which in
turn lead to big mistakes. I have
provided many examples of both the myths and solutions that help entrepreneurs
avoid making these big mistakes. I have also listed the internet marketing elements
needed and have included links to dozens of articles that provide other
perspectives to help you on your journey.

Hector Cisneros is COO and director of Social
Media Marketing at Working the Web to Win, an award-winning
Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville, Florida. He is also co-host of the weekly
Internet radio show, "Working
the Web to Win" on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday
at 4 p.m. Eastern. Hector is a syndicated writer and published author of “60
Seconds to Success.”

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By Hector Cisneros I have been actively networking in a number of organizations since the early 1980’s. My experience, tells me that most...

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Our Privacy Policy - Your privacy is important to us. We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to information you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contacts from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone. We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request. Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about our FREE eBooks, new services, specials, or changes to this privacy policy. If you to unsubscribe from our newsletter or remove access to our FREE eBooks, you can unsubscribe when you receive our newsletters, email me at, hectorc@workingthewebtowin.com with the heading Unscribe from Newsletter and Free eBooks, listing your the email address you subscribed with. you can also text me at 904-712-9355 with the same information or send us a letter to unsubscribe at Working the Web to Win, 3740 Beach Blvd. #300 Jacksonville Fl. 32207. Again please make sure you tell us the email address you subscribed with.